Economics for Non-Economists

Not everybody have to become professional economists, but knowing some economics can help. This is the main idea behind ISET and TSU’s recent initiative to popularize the most fascinating economics ideas and concepts through a series of public lectures. These lectures will be delivered approximately once a month, in Georgian, by leading Georgian economists affiliated with the school.

The program will cover a very broad spectrum of issues since modern economics does not limit itself to the analysis of, say, markets and firms. Economics also tries to understand history, culture and traditions, tastes and values, political decisions and processes. The ever expanding domain of economic inquiry, the use mathematics language and complex models akin to physics has even led some economists to think of their discipline as “the queen of social sciences”.

The first, pilot lecture by Giorgi Bakradze gathered more than 450 people in TSU’s newly renovated public lecture hall on November 29, 2012. Titled "History of Money and Banking: from Mesopotamia to Present Day", Bakradze’s lecture provided a glimpse into monetary theory, the role of money and financial institutions in promoting exchange, trade and economic development throughout the human history.

Discussing the development of money and banking from ancient Mesopotamia and China, through antique Greece and Rome till present time, Bakradze reflected on the economic rationale and the motivation behind the various monetary instruments and policies in the specific historical contexts in which they were introduced and used. In particular, he explained the essence of money, credit, interest rates, inflation and other economic concepts and how they evolved over time.

The next lecture in the series will be held in January 2013. To receive the email announcement please subscribe to our newsletter here.